DESPITE the efforts of the World Anti-Doping Association (Wada) and the US Anti-Doping Association (USADA) to stop doping, it seems the illegal practice is rearing its ugly head with regularity.
Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former heavyweight titlist Brock Lesnar and the 400 Russian athletes who will be competing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics are in the middle of the controversy.
Lesnar and Jones were caught allegedly preparing for a fight using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Both fighters face a two-year ban from the sport, a penalty that they may not come back from.
Questions are all over the place as to why these people are doing it despite the clear danger to their health and their long-term well-being.
The unfortunate part of this whole controversy is there may have been state-sponsored doping. Doping that was allegedly encouraged by Russian sports officials.
As the Olympics approaches, do we expect a handful of athletes to get caught using PEDs?
Jones and Lesnar have continuously denied that they took PEDs. Are they insulting our intelligence? Does the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) conduct any form of testing on its wrestlers? Lesnar isn’t only a mixed martial arts fighter but also a professional wrestler employed by the WWE.
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THE other day, I watched a National Basketball Association (NBA) documentary on Boston Celtic legend Bill Russell. Russell was a product of the University of San Francisco. He is an 11-time NBA champion and won league Most Valuable Player five times. He was known as the defensive anchor of the Boston Celtics that ruled the NBA for nine consecutive years.
There were a couple of things shown in the documentary that I didn’t know transpired in his life, like he didn’t attend both his retirement and Hall of Fame ceremonies. This was a byproduct of his love-hate relationship with Boston. He reconciled with the only city he has ever played for and his number was re-retired in 1999. Russell received a long standing ovation by Celtics fans which brought him to tears.
Another documentary I watched was on Philadelphia 76ers legend Julius “The Doctor” Erving. Erving attended the University of Massachusetts. He was Michael Jordan before there was even a Michael Jordan.
Russell is also remembered for his battles against competitor and friend Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain. Chamberlain was also known as “Big Dipper.”
The Celtics organization, at the time owned by Walter A. Brown, was ahead of the curve by drafting Russell who was long and athletic. He was drafted for his defense, length and athletic ability. He didn’t have to score a lot of points since the Celtics moved the ball around a lot, each player getting a lot of touches and finding the open man all the time by making the extra passes.
Back to the Olympics, I asked one of our senior sports officials for his thoughts on doping plaguing the Russian sports program.
He says, “Rebecca R. Ruiz of the the New York Times reports that ‘Olympic officials said that all Russian athletes were tainted by the country’s state-run doping system and would not be allowed to compete in the Summer Games unless they convinced the individual sports federations of their innocence.”’
Ruiz added that, “With just 12 days [reckoned from Sunday, July 24, the date of the Ruiz report] before the Games begin, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement that ‘all Russian athletes seeking entry to the Olympic Games Rio 2016 are considered to be affected by a system subverting and manipulating the antidoping system.”’ In short, there is no presumption of innocence.
With this decision, the burden of determining whether Russia’s athletes are PED-compromised is now left to the 27 international sports federations taking part in the Olympics. For some, this decision is wise since it, in effect, empowers these federations to act on their own, exercise their judgment and decide, with their decision being reviewed by an independent arbitrator commissioned by the IOC. For others, the move to outsource the decision to the international federations was a cop out.
Whatever decision the IOC took on this matter would have always be criticized by either the soft or hard liners. In addition, evaluating the individual sports federation’s decision on each Russian athlete by the IOC with a mere 11 days to go before the Olympic torch is lit in the main stadium, is going to be a nearly insurmountable challenge.”